Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-05-18

Basutu that the baas said that lie must 60
away, and he went that night. Next morn
ng the span Of black oxen were gone too.
The kraal gate was down and they had gone.
We hunted all day, but we could not find
them Then Om Jacob got mad with rage,
and the young Baas Frank told him that
one of the kat1ir boys had said to him that
he had heard my father sell them to the Ba-
sutu FIR sheep which he was to pay to us in
the summer It was lie, but Baas Frank
hated my father because Of something about
q woman-a Zulu girl. Next morning, when
we were asleep. just at daybreak, Om Jacob
Muller and Baas Frank and two Kafirs
came into the hut and pulled us out, the old
man, my uncle, my father, my mother and
myself, and tied us up to four mimosa trees,
with buffalo reims. Then the Kaflirs went
away, and ON Jacob asked my father where
tht.cattle were, and my father told him that
he did not know. Their he took off his hat
and said prayer to the Big Man in the sky,
AID when he had done Baas Frank came up
with gun, and stood quite close and shot
my father dead, and he fell forward and
hung quite over the reim, his head touching
his feet. Then he loaded the gun again and
shot the old man, my uncle, and he slipped
down dead, and his hands stuck up in the air
against the reiln Next he shot my mother,
but the bullet did.not kill her, and cut the
REIN, and she ran away, and he ran after
her and killed her. When that was done he
came back to shoot me; but l was young
then and did not know that it is better to be
dead than to live like dog, and I begged
and prayed for mercy while he was loading
the gun.
GBut the baas only laughed, and said he
would teach Hottentots how to steal cattle,
and old ON Jacob prayed out loud to the Big
Man and said he was very sorry for me, but
it was the dear Lords will. And then, just
as Baas Frank lifted the gun he dropped it
again, for there, coming softly, softly over
the brow of the hill, in and out between the
bushes, were all the sixteen oxen. They had
got out in the night and strayed away into
some kloof for a change Of pasture, and
come back when they were full and tired Of
being alone. Om Jacob turned quite white
and scratched his head, and then fell upon
his knees and thanked the dear Lord for saw
ing my life; and just then the English
woman, Baas Franks mother, came down
from the wagon to see what the firing was
at, and when she saw all the people dead and
me weeping, tied to the tree, and learned
what it was about, she went quite mad, for
sometimes she had kind heart when she was
not drunk, and said that a curse would fall
on them, and that they would all die in blood.
And she took q knife and cut me loose,
though Baas Frank wanted to kill ME, so that
I might tell no tales; and I ran away, travel
ing by night and hiding by day, for was
very much frightened, till got to Natal and
there stopped, working III Natal till the
land became English, when Baas Croft hired
me to drive bis cart up from Maritzburg;
and living by here found Baas Frank, look
ing bigger but just the same except for his
beard.
"There, baas, that is the truth, and all the
truth, and that is why hate Baas Frank,
because he shot my father and mother, and
why Baas Frank hates me, because he cannot
forget that lie did it and saw him do it, for,
as our people say, 'one always hates man
one has wounded with spear;'" and having
finished his narrative the miserable looking
little man picked up his greasy old felt hat.
that had leather strap fixed round the
crown, in which were stuck couple Of frayed
ostrich feathers, and jammed it down over
his ears, and then fell to drawing circles on
the soil with his long toes. His auditors only
looked at one another. Such q ghastly tale
seemed to be beyond comment. They never
doubted its truth; the mans way of telling it
carried conviction with it. And, indeed, two
of them at any rate, had hearl such stories
before. Most people have who live in the
wilder parts OF South Africa, though they
are not all to be taken for gospel.
q l-oI al NJ
athat the woman said that curse would fall
on them and that they would die in bloodi
She was right. Twelve years ago Om Jacob
and his wife were murdered by party of
Mapocl's Kaflrs, down on the edge of that
very Lydenburg veldt. There was o great
noise about it at the time, I remember, but
nothing came of it. Baas Frank was not
there. lie was away shooting buck; so he
escaped and inherited all his fathers farms
and cattle and came to live here"
"So," said the Hottentot. without showing
the slightest interest or SUI prise. 81 knew it
would be so, but wish had been there to
see it. saw that there was q devil in the
woman, and that they would die is she said.
When there is devil in people they always
speak the truth, because they can't help it.
LOOh, UdtiS, III a" u ChSlC Ill UuO otlllu Will
my foot, and l say some words so, and at
last the ends touch. There, that is the circle
of ON Jacob and his wife the Englishwoman.
The ends have touched and they are dead.
An old witch doctor taught me to draw the
circle of mans life and what words to say.
And now draw another of Baas Frank. All!
there is q stone sticking up in the way. The
ends will not touch. But now l work and
work and work with my foot, and say the
words and say the words, and so-the stone
comes up and the ends touch now. So it is
with Baas Frank. One day the stone will
come up and the ends will touch, and he, too,
will die in blood. The devil in the English
woman said SO, and devils cannot lie or speak
half the truth only. And now, look, l rub
my foot over the circles and they are gone,
and there is only the path again That means
that when they have died in blood they will
be quite forgotten and stamped out. Even
their graves will be fiat" and ho wrinkled
up his yellow face into a smile, or rather q
grin, and then added in a matter offact way:
"Does the baas wish the gray mare to have
one bundle of green forage or two!'